Human rights activists arrested in Minsk (Updated)

All the human rights activists arrested on March 23 in Minsk were sent to the detention centre in Akrestsin Street for a night before the trial.

Human rights activists Ales Byalatski, Valyantsin Stefanovich, Iryna Toustsik and a journalist Syarhei Sys were detained during the protest rally near Lukashenka's administration.

The human rights activists held a picket against capital punishment in Belarus. They had special T-shirts with blood stains painted on them, and unfurled a poster "No to capital punishment!"

All the detained human rights activists and the journalist were take to the police department of Leninski district of Minsk. We remind that Ales Byalatski is Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

As Ales Byalatski managed to tell charter97.org website, the detention was made by at least 6 policemen and guards of Lukashenka's administration. The poster was immediately seized from the hands of the protesters. In the police department reports were drawn up against the protesters, probably under Article 23.34 of the Administrative Code (violation of the regulations of mass events holding).

"We oppose capital punishment resolutely. We want to state that two more persons must not be executed, when there is a call of the world community to declare moratorium, and an appeal of the UN not to carry out executions while this issue is under discussion. But the authorities have broken all the agreements cynically," Ales Byalatski said to charter97.org website.

After the reports were drawn up, the human rights activists were sent to prison in Akrestsi Street for a detention until the trial.

According to human rights organisation Amnesty International, in the end of the last week 1 25-year-old Andrei Zhuk and 30-year-old Vasily Yuzepchuk were shot. The first one had been found guilty of an armed assault and murder of workers of agricultural entreprise "Bolshevik-Agro" who were transporting money for salaries. The second one had been sentenced to the capital punishment for a serial murder of elderly women in Brest region.

Photo from the archive